Authorities have confirmed that the mummified remains of a woman found in a suburban Detroit garage in March are those of a Massachusetts woman who lived alone at the home.

Advertisement

The Detroit Free Press reports that authorities this week notified Pia Farrenkopf's relatives that she has been positively identified using DNA testing. Oakland County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Bernardino Pacris says the cause and manner of death cannot be determined.

Pia Farrenkopf was a successful self-employed financial trouble-shooter who traveled the world and greatly valued her privacy, said Paula Logan, a sister in Carver, Mass.

The remains were found in the rear seat of Farrenkopf's Jeep in her garage in Pontiac. She may have been dead for more than five years. There is no evidence of foul play.

''It kills us to read that maybe nobody cared for her,'' nephew Eric Logan of Plymouth, Mass., told The Associated Press. ''It's completely opposite. All of us are just devastated. ... We have been looking for her. We've done everything we could do, shy of us kicking the door ourselves.''

"It's like what one woman said: when people don't want to be found, they won't. She was a private person. She liked her privacy. When she wanted to be contacted, she would reach out to you. We reached out to her many times," niece and goddaughter Nina Logan said.

Oakland County authorities have said Farrenkopf paid her mortgage and other bills automatically through a checking account that once had a balance of $54,000. The money ran out a year ago, and the home then went into foreclosure. A contractor sent by the lender discovered the body.

Paula Logan said her sister, one of 10 siblings from an Irish-Belgian family in the Boston area, typically stayed in touch even while working or traveling in Germany, England, Switzerland and Egypt. She said she last saw her in 2007.

''It's not like we were estranged. ... My sister had died. I tried to get in touch with her,'' Logan said. ''My mother passed, too. We tried to get in touch with her. The phone just rang, rang, rang.''